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POLICY MEMO

THE EU AND UKRAINE AFTER THE 2012 ELECTIONS Andrew Wilson

SUMMARY

Relations between the EU and Ukraine are at an impasse after two years dominated by rows over the selective prosecution of regime opponents, in particular the conviction of former Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko in October 2011, and authoritarianism and corruption in Ukraine. However, the real danger following the elections on 28 October is not electoral fraud but the way that the authorities are now entrenching themselves in power by every possible means. Members of the literal and metaphorical “family” around President Yanukovych are using their power to enrich themselves on an unprecedented scale. The EU cannot afford to simply wait until the next contest in 2015. The EU must think creatively to find a way to move beyond this impasse. It should better define conditionality in the three key areas of selective prosecutions, the conduct of elections and “reform”. It should apply the Association Agreement and Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement with Ukraine that have been on hold since last December, if necessary selectively or provisionally, but take a tougher line in other areas, for example by imposing a visa ban on leading figures in the regime and auditing suspect “family” companies in the EU. At the same time, the EU should liberalise visas, encourage educational exchanges and support the emergence of new independent actors in Ukraine who are worried by the rise of the “family”.

Relations between the EU and Ukraine are at an impasse. The last two years have been dominated by rows over the selective prosecution of regime opponents, in particular the conviction of former Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko in October 2011, and an accelerating trend towards a more authoritarian and corrupt style of rule in Ukraine. Attention has now turned to the parliamentary elections held on 28 October 2012 as a different test of Ukraine’s democratic bona fides. The opposition rightly feels aggrieved that the authorities have denied them a possible victory. There was some direct fraud, particularly in the new territorial constituencies.1 But in general the authorities sought to rig the election by other methods such as the covert use of “political technology” and a change in the voting system that the opposition ironically agreed to back in 2011. Paradoxically, this meant that in many ways the election was more competitive than expected – but only because the authorities were confident they would win. The recent focus on the elections has broadened the European view from the Tymoshenko case to look at how things have deteriorated across the board. But there is also a danger that the EU will move the goalposts and make the conduct of the elections the only criterion for deciding whether or not it should restart relations with Ukraine, or judge the authorities more on past than on present behaviour and use a critique of the elections to move towards a de facto 1 The Ukrainian parliament has 450 MPs. After the “Orange Revolution” in 2004, it was thought better that all of them should be elected by proportional representation. But in 2011 the government forced through a return to the earlier system, under which half of MPs would be elected by PR, and the other half in territorial constituencies, where socalled administrative resources (that is, state-directed fraud) had more weight.

THE EU AND UKRAINE AFTER THE 2012 ELECTIONS

isolation policy. In November the Foreign Affairs Council will decide whether to move forward with the Association Agreement (AA) and Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (DCFTA) with Ukraine that have been on hold since last December. The annual EU-Ukraine summit is still scheduled for some time before the end of this year, though neither side is particularly enthusiastic. Some in the EU are minded to sign the agreements, in part because the process of ratification by member states is likely to get bogged down anyway. Others want to use the agreements to enforce red lines on political prosecutions or democratic deterioration. However, neither approach will help transform Ukraine into the kind of society the EU would like to see. Signing the agreements prematurely would undermine conditionality; leaving them on ice leaves the EU without leverage. The EU therefore needs to think of creative ways of regaining influence while maintaining red lines on values – not least because the political situation in Ukraine could easily deteriorate further. A tightening of the screws on independent media and on the still strong independent NGO sector is possible after the elections. The row over the Tymoshenko case was bad enough. But unless the EU regains traction, there will be worse to come. The authorities are entrenching themselves in power by every possible means, and members of the literal and metaphorical “family” around President Yanukovych are using that power to enrich themselves on an unprecedented scale. The EU cannot afford to wait until the next contest in 2015.

ECFR/65

November 2012

www.ecfr.eu

The return of “political technology”

2

There were some encouraging signs of democratic vitality in the October elections. The mass media opened up a little, if only temporarily. The authorities were unable to prevail in several key hotly contested constituency races. The United Opposition coalition built around Tymoshenko’s Fatherland party came second, even though she was not allowed to stand. But while the EU has tended to focus on election fraud and the selective prosecution of political opponents, democracy in Ukraine is now being undermined in many other ways. The judicial “reform” pushed through in 2010 now gives the state the power to put anyone it wants in prison. The legal system has become totally politicised; conviction rates are over 99 percent. The judiciary is used to silence enemies and to legitimise the increasing problem of raidertsvo, or the theft by oligarchs of each others’ businesses. Even the release of Tymoshenko would not solve this more fundamental problem. Where the opposition did well, it was despite its own weaknesses. Many of its leading figures played safe and stood on party lists rather than take on the ruling Party of Regions directly in the constituencies. The three main opposition parties – Fatherland, UDAR (known as “Punch” because it is led by the boxer Vitaliy Klichko) and the far-right Freedom Party – could only reach a partial agreement on withdrawing in each others’ favour in the constituencies. Each suspects

the other of acting as a Trojan horse and secretly planning to ally with the Party of Regions after the elections. Divisions within the main parties are manifold, and where they do not exist they are created by the authorities’ malign influence. The opposition shouldn’t even be the opposition in the outgoing parliament, as it won the last elections in 2007. But disunity in its ranks has repeatedly led to defections and failure to block or effectively resist key measures like the election law itself in November 2011 or the new Law on Languages in July 2012. The position of the opposition is being further weakened by the revival of so-called “political technology” (the local black arts of covert manipulation). Many of the “opposition” parties running in the election were in reality covert projects of the authorities. Forward Ukraine! and its leader Nataliya Korolevska act like radical opposition forces, but are in reality what is known locally as “clones” – that is, copies of other parties financed by leading oligarchs that try to take the place of the old opposition – hence the choice of a young, glamorous female leader to compete with Yuliya Tymoshenko. The authorities prevented some opposition parties such as UDAR from campaigning in eastern Ukraine, where the Party of Regions is relatively sanguine about losing votes to other parties such as the Communists, as it knows the Communists will be a reliable part of any future super-majority. Even the genuine opposition parties are now all financially dependent on oligarchic sponsors, often even from the authorities’ own ranks. Ukraine’s richest man, Rinat Akhmetov, supposedly spent $80 million on Forward Ukraine! – though he allegedly cut funding because the project was threatening to take votes off the Party of Regions. The Communists are sponsored to the tune of $25 million by Ihor Koletnik, the head of the Customs Service.2 This financing illustrates how threatened some Ukrainian oligarchs feel by the rise of Yanukovch’s “family”. At the same time, however, such funding reduces the real independence of the “opposition”. The opposition parties have also been seeded with so-called tushki – individuals who are known to be easily bribeable and are pre-programmed to defect after the election3. The problem of bribery and the defection of MPs has been around for a long time. In 2004, changes to the constitution were agreed that required MPs to stay in the parties they were elected to serve and to ensure that the government “majority” was made up of parties rather than individuals. But in a blatantly partial ruling in 2010 the constitutional court reversed that decision. At least 80 percent of “independent” MPs will be persuaded to join the authorities’ camp by the same means. Thus even though the Party of Regions did not win the headline vote, together with the fake opposition, “independents” and tushki, it still has a majority and is within reach of the 300 out of 450 seats in the new parliament it needs to change the constitution. The three 2 Author interview with leading local political technologist Taras Berezovets, 20 September 2012. 3 Tushka means the corpse of a small animal – something like “roadkill”.

main opposition parties will have to show an uncharacteristic level of solidarity to prevent this happening.

The rise of the “family” Corruption has also increased substantially since the 2010 elections. Yanukovych has increasingly vested power and wealth in a literal and metaphorical “family”. The president’s oldest son Oleksandr Yanukovych and his associates have taken over the central bank and tax, finance and law enforcement agencies, and used that power to take over rival businesses.4 This began with businesses owned by supporters of the losing side in 2010 and Ukraine’s vulnerable SME sector. Now the “family” has shifted to targeting major oligarchs. “Grabbing property started with the supporters of the orange elite, but now it is danger of spreading to the relatively loyal guys,” says leading Ukrainian analyst Mykhailo Honchar.5 Over the last year, the “family” has begun moving into the coal business, electricity, telecommunications and agriculture. Land privatisation is scheduled finally to move forward after the elections, but amendments to the law recently created a new state land bank that would have first right of purchase if peasant farmers chose to sell their land, leading to fears that “family” businesses will quickly accumulate the largest parcels of Ukraine’s rich farm land. Ukraine’s co-hosting of the Euro 2012 football championship finals was marred by controversies over the privileged role of shadowy contractor companies linked to the “family” like Altcom. Rake-offs and over-payments cost the Ukrainian taxpayer hundreds of millions of dollars. In August 2012, Yanukovych signed a law cancelling the obligation of state companies to hold tenders for the purchase of goods and services when they use their own funds. Yuliya Mostova, the editor of Ukraine’s main independent paper Mirror of the Week, argues that Yanukovych’s goal is simple. “He wants to be the richest man in Eastern Europe”, she says. “Yanukovych is the first president of Ukraine who needs a controlling share not only of all power in the country but of all its business too.”6 The power of the “family” is likely to grow further after the elections as Serhiy Arbuzov, the current head of the central bank and “curator” of the many “family” businesses, moves to become first deputy prime minister or even prime minister. Because the interests of the “family” are currently all within Ukraine, its members are immune to the argument that Ukraine needs the agreements with the EU. However, other oligarchs who trade or invest abroad are deeply worried about the threat to their business interests.

4 See the analysis of his expanding empire by Sevgil Musaeva, “How the Business of the President’s Elder Son Works”, Forbes Ukraine, 3 September 2012, at http://forbes.ua/ magazine/forbes/1336398-kak-rabotaet-biznes-starshego-syna-prezidenta 5 Author interview, 8 November 2011. 6 Author interview with Yuliya Mostova, 8 November 2011; Yuliia Mostova, “Semostiinyi Yanukovych”, Dzerkalo tyzhnia , 1 June 2012, available at http://dt.ua/POLITICS/ semostiyniy_yanukovich-103152.html.

Fragile pluralism The authorities are not far short of a two-thirds majority in the new parliament that would allow them to change the constitution. For example, they could decide to allow Yanukovych to be “re-elected” by parliament in 2015 rather than directly by the people. Alternatively, as the authorities now control almost all political branches of state, they could target remaining independent centres of power before any such challenges arise. Since 2010, the authorities have been gradually tightening control over independent media, not by restoring direct censorship, but by challenging and redistributing oligarchic control. As Serhiy Kudelya puts it, “control over the leading television channels by oligarchic moguls close to Yanukovych has produced a more decentralized system of self-censorship”.7 The new preference is for so-called usnyky, or verbal instructions from the presidential administration to TV owners in person. Thus the media remains pluralistic but is highly corrupt. According to one UDAR adviser, “all media is now paid for, and we have to play that game”.8 The authorities may drop their relatively hands-off approach to the media once the vote is over, just as they did once the Euro 2012 final in Kyiv was out of the way, in part so that the “family” can muscle in on the local media market. The campaign that began in the summer against Ukraine’s last remaining TV channels like TVi and independent outlets like the paper and popular web site Left Bank, as well as sites modelled on Alexey Navalny’s campaigns in Russia like parklikeidiot.com.ua and nashigroshi.org (“Our Money”), which looks at corruption in public contracts, may well be resumed. Meanwhile Ukraine’s relatively free NGO sector looks like an increasing anomaly. The number of registered NGOs has actually grown in recent years. Ukraine has not yet followed Russia by forcing out “foreign” NGOs and substituting them with Kremlin-friendly “governmentorganised NGOs” or GONGOs (Russia’s own measures were ironically a reaction to Ukraine’s Orange Revolution in 2004). But the Ukrainian authorities are now setting up “clone” NGOs such as For Fair Elections, which predictably gave the October elections a clean bill of health.9 Ironically and sadly for the country that staged famous mass protests against the last rigged elections in 2004, the organisation of crowds and demonstrations is now a professional business – demonstrators, often students, are paid to turn up.10 Precisely because many NGOs played a key role in election monitoring, a “final front” against them could be opened after the elections. 7 Serhiy Kudelya, “Politics and Democracy in Ukraine”, in Taras Kuzio and Daniel Hamilton (eds.), Open Ukraine: Changing Course Towards a European Future (Washington, DC: Center for Transatlantic Relations, 2011), pp. 1-20 and pp. 10-11. 8 Author interview, 19 September 2012. 9 “The observers from For Fair Elections saw no serious violations and talk about the ‘new developments’ in the upcoming elections in Ukraine”, Komsomolskaya Pravda in Ukraine, 25 October 2012, available at http://kp.ua/daily/251012/362845/ 10 Yegor Vasylyev, “The Funny Business of Ukrainian Political Rallies”, Transitions Online , 9 February 2012, available at www.tol.org/client/article/22988-the-funnybusiness-of-ukrainian-political-rallies.html; Richard Boudreaux, “Bucks Populi: Making Democracy a Going Concern in Kiev”, The Wall Street Journal , 5 February 2010.

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THE EU AND UKRAINE AFTER THE 2012 ELECTIONS

On the other hand, the opposition has a strong defensive position in the new parliament and there are signs of dissatisfaction and division within the ruling elite. The EU should support political and economic pluralism wherever it can.

The customs union bluff Even before the AA and the DCFTA were frozen in December 2011, the EU was not good at explaining the benefit of them to Ukrainians. Since the agreements were frozen, the Ukrainian media has been increasingly stressing their downside – which is not insignificant, given the cost of implementing such a large proportion of the acquis communautaire,11 This argument has particular traction with hard-pressed SMEs, which are suffering as the Ukrainian economy seems to be going into another recession. Ukraine’s SME sector was already too small for an economy of its size, but has actually shrunk in recent years to less than 20 percent of GDP. Banks have virtually stopped lending to SMEs, particularly because they have been renationalised since 2008 – the share of banking assets owned by Western banks has fallen from a peak of 42 percent in early 2009 to 25 percent in the first half of 2012.12 The new owners favour lending to big oligarchs – which often means themselves. The Ukrainian authorities intend to use the elections to restore their legitimacy in the West. If it is not forthcoming, they will blackmail the West by threatening to join the Russia-led customs union. But this is a bluff. In fact, only a handful of oligarchs, mainly the so-called gas lobby, would see gains in such a union. Ironically, it is the hard-pressed SME sector, rather than the oligarchs, that may be tempted by the idea of a customs union with Russia. Even more ironically, the “family” would not gain at all if Ukraine were more open to Russian capital.

ECFR/65

November 2012

www.ecfr.eu

Policy recommendations

4

The current impasse means that doing nothing will simply allow these worrisome trends to get worse. The mooted solution of signing the agreements if the elections are deemed “not too bad” is just as dangerous. It would completely undermine conditionality, which was originally applied over selective prosecutions, and deepen the regime’s current sense of impunity. Creative thinking is therefore needed in order to get round the impasse and move relations onto another page. The Tymoshenko case is only one of many problems. Her release should be an ultimate goal but not the only immediate goal. The first step is to better define conditionality in the three key areas of selective prosecutions, the conduct of elections and “reform”. There are too many EU voices in all three 11 See Rafał Sadowski, “The Prospects for the EU-Ukraine free trade agreement”, Centre for Eastern Studies, 18 October 2012, http://www.osw.waw.pl/en/publikacje/oswcommentary/2012-10-18/prospects-euukraine-free-trade-agreement 12 Yevhen Hrebenyuk, “Foreign Banks Flee Ukraine”, Ukrainian Week , 23 October 2012, http://ukrainianweek.com/Economics/63007.

areas, particularly on the Tymoshenko case: some EU leaders have asked for her release; others have complained at new charges being laid against her; and others have criticised the conditions in which she is held. The EU therefore needs to agree a standard that is both substantive and actionable: asking the Ukrainian authorities to comply fully with any ruling of the European Court on Human Rights is one possibility. On elections, the final OSCE-ODIHR report should be as rounded as possible, looking at “political technology” as well as simple fraud, but also noting areas in which the authorities’ will or schemes did not prevail. The EU should press for “reform” in areas that enable progress on other fronts, such as dropping the provisions in the antidiscrimination legislation that are incompatible with visa liberalisation. The second step should be provisional application of the agreements with the EU. If necessary, the AA could be split to allow the DCFTA and sectoral parts to be enacted on their own without the “political” and justice sections. Alternatively, the agreements could remain in deep freeze, but the EU could continue with sectoral integration on the basis of parallel sectoral agreements. Defining a dividing line between what is EU competence (most of the DCFTA) and what is member-state competence will be difficult but not impossible. There was always a strong case both for the agreements, which will help transform Ukrainian society in the long run, and for red lines. But it makes little sense to block the agreements to punish Ukraine. Rather, the EU should take a tougher line in other areas in order to allow the agreements to be revived. The advocates of a tougher approach will hopefully feel happier about the agreements going forward if they can see that action is being taken elsewhere. The resolution on Ukraine passed by the US Senate in September is the beginning of a trend towards the construction of a Ukrainian equivalent of the “Magnitsky List”. 13 The European Commission is investigating Gazprom. The EU should start with a visa ban on Renat Kuzmin, the deputy prosecutor responsible for the trials of Tymoshenko and former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko. The EU should also audit the activities of suspect “family” companies in Austria, Cyprus and Luxembourg (and in Liechtenstein and Switzerland), which break existing EU law. This need not be formal “sanctions”; it can be undertaken by national financial security agencies. The US is currently taking a tougher line, but most of the Ukrainian elite’s financial malfeasance is within the EU and dependencies like the British Virgin Islands. For example, the Activ Solar company, which is based in Vienna, allegedly acts as a front for government circles that are siphoning off budget money and circulating it back home tax free.14 In this sense, the lack of Western interest would be fatal for Ukraine. 13 The text can be found at http://inhofe.senate.gov/public/index. cfm?FuseAction=Files.View&FileStore_id=26d65aab-4ed1-4173-8f61-c05809c5b0ac. 14 See the article by Serhiy Leshchenko “Tax Haven of Yanukovych and Kluyev”, 22 January 2012, translated at http://eastbook.eu/en/2012/01/material-en/news-en/ serhyi-leshchenko-tax-haven-of-yanukovych-and-kluyev/

The third step should be to press ahead with parallel measures. The authorities’ propaganda relies heavily on the argument that the EU cares only about Tymoshenko and not about ordinary Ukrainians. Visa liberalisation should therefore be a part of any scenario. Ratification by the European Parliament of the new amended Visa Facilitation Agreement signed in July has also been blocked because of the Tymoshenko affair, but should now move forward. Now that Ukraine has introduced biometric passports it should be within sight of the second, post-legislative stage of its Visa Liberalisation Action Plan. Wider travel will liberalise Ukraine in the long run. So would easier internal travel, if budget airlines could be attracted to Ukraine as a result of an Open Skies Agreement. Changes to the Erasmus education exchange programme will also benefit Ukraine, but the EU needs to be wary of encouraging a “brain drain” from Ukraine and should instead encourage a two-way process with schemes to encourage visiting students and experts from the West. The EU should also be much more proactive about advertising the economic and social benefits of the agreements. It should develop a positive communication strategy, involving local NGOs, to sell the agreements to local stakeholders. The EU should also support the emergence of new independent actors in Ukraine. Western loans and investments, for example, help protect business against raidertsvo. The EU should help revive lending schemes for SMEs, which are not working as they might – from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank. Finally, the EU should open other channels to circumvent the current dialogue of the deaf. The European Parliament’s Kwasniewski/Cox mission to monitor selective prosecutions, which is currently suspended for the duration of the elections, can be replicated and expanded. The EU should give a voice to business circles that are worried by the rise of the “family”.

Conclusion Ukraine’s leaders behave like they have immunity and impunity, as if Ukraine were a vital raw material supplier or possessed of other geopolitical importance. In reality, they only have power in isolation. The EU should not fear continuing to apply tough standards to Ukraine. But the EU needs leverage and should also work harder to show it is on the side of Ukraine’s beleaguered democratic, liberal and economically constructive forces. Once Ukraine develops proper relations with Europe appropriate to its size, location and economic potential, the EU’s leverage will be much higher. It’s time to show Ukraine some tough love.

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THE EU AND UKRAINE AFTER THE 2012 ELECTIONS www.ecfr.eu November 2012 ECFR/65 6

About the author

Acknowledgements

Andrew Wilson is a Senior Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations and a reader in Ukrainian Studies at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES) at University College London. He has previously held academic positions at the London School of Economics and Cambridge. His most recent books are Belarus: The Last European Dictatorship (2011) and The Ukrainians: Unexpected Nations (third edition, 2009). His publications for ECFR include Ukraine after the Tymoshenko verdict (2011) and Turning Presence into Power: Lessons from the Eastern Neighbourhood (with Nicu Popescu).

The author would like to acknowledge the help of Jana Kobzova for her useful advice and Hans Kundnani for his excellent and speedy editing, as well as the following interviewees in Ukraine: Olexiy Haran, Rostyslav Pavlenko, Taras Berezovets, Yuliya Mostova, Alyona Getmanchuk, Mykhailo Honchar, Oleksandr Lytvynenko and members of the EU delegation in Kiev.

Among members of the European Council on Foreign Relations are former prime ministers, presidents, European commissioners, current and former parliamentarians and ministers, public intellectuals, business leaders, activists and cultural figures from the EU member states and candidate countries.

Asger Aamund (Denmark)

President and CEO, A. J. Aamund A/S and Chairman of Bavarian Nordic A/S

Urban Ahlin (Sweden)

Deputy Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee and foreign policy spokesperson for the Social Democratic Party

Martti Ahtisaari (Finland)

Chairman of the Board, Crisis Management Initiative; former President

Giuliano Amato (Italy)

Former Prime Minister and vice President of the European Convention; Chairman, Centre for American Studies; Chairman, Enciclopedia Treccani

Gustavo de Aristegui (Spain) Member of Parliament

Viveca Ax:son Jonhson (Sweden)

Chairman of Nordstjernan AB

John Bruton (Ireland)

Former European Commission Ambassador to the USA; former Prime Minister (Taoiseach)

Ian Buruma (The Netherlands) Writer and academic

Erhard Busek (Austria)

Chairman of the Institute for the Danube and Central Europe

Jerzy Buzek (Poland) Member of the European Parliament; former President of the European Parliament; former Prime Minister

Gunilla Carlsson (Sweden)

Minister for International Development Cooperation

Maria Livanos Cattaui (Switzerland)

Former Secretary General of the International Chamber of Commerce

Ipek Cem Taha (Turkey)

Director of Melak Investments/ Journalist

Carmen Chacón (Spain) Former Minister of Defence

Charles Clarke (United Kingdom)

Visiting Professor of Politics, University of East Anglia; former Home Secretary

Nicola Clase (Sweden)

Former Prime Minister

Ambassador to the United Kingdom; former State Secretary

Dora Bakoyannis (Greece)

Daniel Cohn-Bendit (Germany)

Gordon Bajnai (Hungary) Member of Parliament; former Foreign Minister

Leszek Balcerowicz (Poland)

Professor of Economics at the Warsaw School of Economics; former Deputy Prime Minister

Lluís Bassets (Spain)

Member of the European Parliament

Robert Cooper (United Kingdom)

Counsellor of the European External Action Service

Gerhard Cromme (Germany)

Deputy Director, El País

Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the ThyssenKrupp

Marek Belka (Poland)

Maria Cuffaro (Italy)

Governor, National Bank of Poland; former Prime Minister

Roland Berger (Germany)

Anchorwoman, TG3, RAI

Daniel Daianu (Romania)

Founder and Honorary Chairman, Roland Berger Strategy Consultants GmbH

Professor of Economics, National School of Political and Administrative Studies (SNSPA); former Finance Minister

Erik Berglöf (Sweden)

Massimo D’Alema (Italy)

Chief Economist, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

Jan Krzysztof Bielecki (Poland)

Chairman, Prime Minister’s Economic Council; former Prime Minister

Carl Bildt (Sweden) Foreign Minister

Henryka Bochniarz (Poland) President, Polish Confederation of Private Employers – Lewiatan

Svetoslav Bojilov (Bulgaria)

President, Italianieuropei Foundation; President, Foundation for European Progressive Studies; former Prime Minister and Foreign Minister

Marta Dassù (Italy)

Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs

Ahmet Davutoglu (Turkey) Foreign Minister

Aleš Debeljak (Slovenia) Poet and Cultural Critic

Founder, Communitas Foundation and President of Venture Equity Bulgaria Ltd.

Jean-Luc Dehaene (Belgium)

Ingrid Bonde (Sweden)

Gianfranco Dell’Alba (Italy)

CFO & Deputy CEO, Vaffenfall AB

Emma Bonino (Italy)

Vice President of the Senate; former EU Commissioner

Stine Bosse (Denmark)

Chairman and Non-Executive Board Member

Han ten Broeke (The Netherlands)

Member of Parliament and spokesperson for foreign affairs and defence

Member of the European Parliament; former Prime Minister Director, Confederation of Italian Industry (Confindustria) - Brussels office; former Member of the European Parliament

Pavol Demeš (Slovakia)

Senior Transatlantic Fellow, German Marshall Fund of the United States (Bratislava)

Kemal Dervis (Turkey)

Vice-President and Director of Global Economy and Development

Tibor Dessewffy (Hungary) President, DEMOS Hungary

Hanzade Dog˘an Boyner (Turkey)

Chair, Dog˘an Gazetecilik and Dog˘an On-line

Andrew Duff (United Kingdom)

Heidi Hautala (Finland)

Minister for International Development

Sasha Havlicek (United Kingdom)

Member of the European Parliament

Executive Director, Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD)

Mikuláš Dzurinda (Slovakia)

Connie Hedegaard (Denmark)

Former Foreign Minister

Hans Eichel (Germany)

Commissionr for Climate Change

Former Finance Minister

Steven Heinz (Austria)

Rolf Ekeus (Sweden)

Co-Founder & Co-Chairman, Lansdowne Partners Ltd

Former Executive Chairman, United Nations Special Commission on Iraq; former OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities; former Chairman Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI

Annette Heuser (Germany) Executive Director, Bertelsmann Foundation Washington DC

Diego Hidalgo (Spain)

Uffe Ellemann-Jensen (Denmark)

Co-founder of Spanish newspaper El País; President, FRIDE

Steven Everts (The Netherlands)

Jaap de Hoop Scheffer (The Netherlands)

Chairman, Baltic Development Forum; former Foreign Minister

Adviser to the Vice President of the European Commission and EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy

Former NATO Secretary General

Tanja Fajon (Slovenia)

Anna Ibrisagic (Sweden)

Member of the European Parliament

Gianfranco Fini (Italy)

President, Chamber of Deputies; former Foreign Minister

Joschka Fischer (Germany)

Danuta Hübner (Poland)

Member of the European Parliament; former European Commissioner Member of the European Parliament

Jaakko Iloniemi (Finland)

Former Ambassador and former Executive Director, Crisis Management Initiative

Former Foreign Minister and viceChancellor

Toomas Ilves (Estonia)

Karin Forseke (Sweden/USA)

Wolfgang Ischinger (Germany)

Chairman, Alliance Trust Plc

Lykke Friis (Denmark)

Member of Parliament; former Minister for Climate, Energy and Gender Equality

Jaime Gama (Portugal)

President

Chairman, Munich Security Conference; Global Head of Government Affairs Allianz SE

Minna Järvenpää (Finland/US)

International Advocacy Director, Open Society Foundation

Former Speaker of the Parliament; former Foreign Minister

Mary Kaldor (United Kingdom)

Timothy Garton Ash (United Kingdom)

Ibrahim Kalin (Turkey)

Professor of European Studies, Oxford University

Senior Advisor to the Prime Minister of Turkey on foreign policy and public diplomacy

Carlos Gaspar (Portugal)

Sylvie Kauffmann (France)

Chairman of the Portuguese Institute of International Relations (IPRI)

Teresa Patricio Gouveia (Portugal)

Trustee to the Board of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation; former Foreign Minister

Heather Grabbe (United Kingdom)

Executive Director, Open Society Institute – Brussels

Charles Grant (United Kingdom) Director, Centre for European Reform

Jean-Marie Guéhenno (France) Deputy Joint Special Envoy of the United Nations and the League of Arab States on Syria

Elisabeth Guigou (France)

Professor, London School of Economics

Editorial Director, Le Monde

Olli Kivinen (Finland) Writer and columnist

Ben Knapen (The Netherlands) Minister for European Affairs and International Cooperation

Gerald Knaus (Austria)

Chairman of the European Stability Initiative and Carr Center Fellow

Caio Koch-Weser (Germany)

Vice Chairman, Deutsche Bank Group; former State Secretary

Bassma Kodmani (France)

Executive Director of the Arab Reform Initiative

Rem Koolhaas (The Netherlands)

Member of Parliament and President of the Foreign Affairs Committee

Architect and urbanist; Professor at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University

Fernando Andresen Guimarães (Portugal)

David Koranyi (Hungary)

Head of the US and Canada Division, European External Action Service

Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg (Germany) Former Defence Minister

István Gyarmati (Hungary)

President and CEO, International Centre for Democratic Transition

Hans Hækkerup (Denmark)

Former Chairman, Defence Commission; former Defence Minister

Deputy Director, Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center of the Atlantic Council of the United States

Bernard Kouchner (France)

Former Minister of Foreign Affairs

Ivan Krastev (Bulgaria)

Chair of Board, Centre for Liberal Strategies

Aleksander Kwas´niewski (Poland) Former President

Mart Laar (Estonia)

Minister of Defence; former Prime

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THE EU AND UKRAINE AFTER THE 2012 ELECTIONS

Minister

Miroslav Lajcˇák (Slovakia)

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister

Alexander Graf Lambsdorff (Germany)

Member of the European Parliament

Pascal Lamy (France)

Honorary President, Notre Europe and Director-General of WTO; former EU Commissioner

Bruno Le Maire (France)

Member of Parliament; Former Minister for Food, Agriculture & Fishing

Mark Leonard (United Kingdom) Director, European Council on Foreign Relations

Jean-David Levitte (France)

Andrzej Olechowski (Poland) Former Foreign Minister

Dick Oosting (The Netherlands) CEO, European Council on Foreign Relations; former Europe Director, Amnesty International

Mabel van Oranje (The Netherlands) Senior Adviser, The Elders

Marcelino Oreja Aguirre (Spain)

Member of the Board, Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas; former EU Commissioner

Monica Oriol (Spain) CEO, Seguriber

Cem Özdemir (Germany)

Leader, Bündnis90/Die Grünen (Green Party)

Ana Palacio (Spain)

Former Sherpa to the President of the Former Foreign Minister; former Senior French Republic; former Ambassador to President and General Counsel of the the United States World Bank Group

Sonia Licht (Serbia)

President, Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence

Juan Fernando López Aguilar (Spain)

Member of the European Parliament; former Minister of Justice

Adam Lury (United Kingdom) CEO, Menemsha Ltd

Diana Pinto (France) Historian and author

Jean Pisani-Ferry (France)

Ruprecht Polenz (Germany)

Wolfgang Schüssel (Austria) Member of Parliament; former Chancellor

Karel Schwarzenberg (Czech Republic) Foreign Minister

Giuseppe Scognamiglio (Italy)

Executive Vice President, Head of Public Affairs, UniCredit Spa

Narcís Serra (Spain)

Member of Parliament; Chairman of the Bundestag Foreign Affairs Committee

Foreign Minister

Aleksander Smolar (Poland)

Chairman of the Board, Stefan Batory Foundation

Javier Solana (Spain)

Former EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy & Secretary-General of the Council of the EU; former Secretary General of NATO

George Soros (Hungary/USA)

Founder and Chairman, Open Society Foundations

Member of Parliament; former Foreign Minister

Teresa de Sousa (Portugal)

Inigo Mendez de Vigo (Spain)

Charles Powell (Spain/United Kingdom)

Goran Stefanovski (Macedonia)

Andrew Puddephatt (United Kingdom)

Member of Parliament

Director, Real Instituto Elcano

Journalist

Playwright and Academic

Rory Stewart (United Kingdom) Alexander Stubb (Finland)

Minister for Foreign Trade and European Affairs; former Foreign Minister

Member of Parliament; Former Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs

Director, Global Partners & Associated Ltd.

Alain Minc (France)

Foreign Minister

Michael Stürmer (Germany) Ion Sturza (Romania)

Nickolay Mladenov (Bulgaria)

Robert Reibestein (The Netherlands)

Director, McKinsey & Company

President of AM Conseil; former chairman, Le Monde Foreign Minister; former Defence Minister; former Member of the European Parliament

Dominique Moïsi (France) Senior Adviser, IFRI

Pierre Moscovici (France)

Finance Minister; former Minister for European Affairs

Vesna Pusic´ (Croatia)

George Robertson (United Kingdom)

Former Secretary General of NATO

Albert Rohan (Austria)

Former Secretary General for Foreign Affairs

Adam D. Rotfeld (Poland)

Chief Correspondent, Die Welt

President, GreenLight Invest; former Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova

Paweł S´wieboda (Poland)

President, Demos EUROPA - Centre for European Strategy

Teija Tiilikainen (Finland) Director, Finnish Institute for International Relations

Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights

Former Minister of Foreign Affairs; Co-Chairman of Polish-Russian Group on Difficult Matters, Commissioner of Euro-Atlantic Security Initiative

Hildegard Müller (Germany)

Norbert Röttgen (Germany)

Loukas Tsoukalis (Greece)

Wolfgang Münchau (Germany)

Olivier Roy (France)

Erkki Tuomioja (Finland)

Nils Muiznieks (Latvia) www.ecfr.eu

Chair of Olof Palme Memorial Fund; former Director General, FRIDE; former SRSG to Cote d’Ivoire

Senior Adviser, World Bank

David Miliband (United Kingdom)

Chairwoman, BDEW Bundesverband der Energie- und Wasserwirtschaft President, Eurointelligence ASBL

November 2012

Pierre Schori (Sweden)

Radosław Sikorski (Poland)

Chancellor of Oxford University and cochair of the International Crisis Group; former EU Commissioner

Emma Marcegaglia (Italy)

Secretary of State for the European Union

ECFR/65

Dean of the Mercator Fellowship on International Affairs; former Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to the US

Chris Patten (United Kingdom)

Katharina Mathernova (Slovakia) Lydie Polfer (Luxembourg)

8

Klaus Scharioth (Germany)

Chair of CIDOB Foundation; former Vice President of the Spanish Government

Member ot the European Parliament CEO of Marcegaglia S.p.A; former President, Confindustria

Member of the European Parliament

Chairman, People in Need Foundation

Simon Panek (Czech Republic)

Director, Bruegel; Professor, Université Paris-Dauphine

Monica Macovei (Romania)

Marietje Schaake (The Netherlands)

Alina Mungiu-Pippidi (Romania) Professor of Democracy Studies, Hertie School of Governance

Kalypso Nicolaïdis (Greece/France)

Professor of International Relations, University of Oxford

Daithi O’Ceallaigh (Ireland)

Director-General, Institute of International and European Affairs

Christine Ockrent (Belgium) Editorialist

Minister for the Environment, Conservation and Nuclear Safety

Professor, European University Institute, Florence

Daniel Sachs (Sweden) CEO, Proventus

Pasquale Salzano (Italy)

Vice President, International Institutional Affairs, ENI

Stefano Sannino (Italy)

Director General for Enlargement, European Commission

Javier Santiso (Spain)

Director, Office of the CEO of Telefonica Europe

Luisa Todini (Italy) Chair, Todini Finanziaria S.p.A Professor, University of Athens and President, ELIAMEP Foreign Minister

Daniel Valtchev, (Bulgaria)

Former Deputy PM and Minister of Education

Vaira Vike-Freiberga (Latvia) Former President

Antonio Vitorino (Portugal)

Lawyer; former EU Commissioner

Andre Wilkens (Germany)

Director Mercator Centre Berlin and Director Strategy, Mercator Haus

Carlos Alonso Zaldívar (Spain) Former Ambassador to Brazil

Stelios Zavvos (Greece)

CEO, Zeus Capital Managers Ltd

Samuel Žbogar (Slovenia)

EU Representative to Kosovo; Former foreign Minister

Also available from ECFR New World Order: The Balance of Soft Power and the Rise of Herbivorous Powers Ivan Krastev and Mark Leonard, October 2007 (ECFR/01) A Power Audit of EU-Russia Relations Mark Leonard and Nicu Popescu, November 2007 (ECFR/02) Poland’s second return to Europe? Paweł Swieboda, December 2007 (ECFR/03) Afghanistan: Europe’s forgotten war Daniel Korski, January 2008 (ECFR/04) Meeting Medvedev: The Politics of the Putin Succession Andrew Wilson, February 2008 (ECFR/05) Re-energising Europe’s Security and Defence Policy Nick Witney, July 2008 (ECFR/06) Can the EU win the Peace in Georgia? Nicu Popescu, Mark Leonard and Andrew Wilson, August 2008 (ECFR/07) A Global Force for Human Rights? An Audit of European Power at the UN Richard Gowan and Franziska Brantner, September 2008 (ECFR/08) Beyond Dependence: How to deal with Russian Gas Pierre Noel, November 2008 (ECFR/09) Re-wiring the US-EU relationship Daniel Korski, Ulrike Guerot and Mark Leonard, December 2008 (ECFR/10) Shaping Europe’s Afghan Surge Daniel Korski, March 2009 (ECFR/11) A Power Audit of EU-China Relations John Fox and Francois Godement, April 2009 (ECFR/12) Beyond the “War on Terror”: Towards a New Transatlantic Framework for Counterterrorism Anthony Dworkin, May 2009 (ECFR/13) The Limits of Enlargement-lite: European and Russian Power in the Troubled Neighbourhood Nicu Popescu and Andrew Wilson, June 2009 (ECFR/14) The EU and human rights at the UN: 2009 annual review Richard Gowan and Franziska Brantner, September 2009 (ECFR/15) What does Russia think? edited by Ivan Krastev, Mark Leonard and Andrew Wilson, September 2009 (ECFR/16)

Supporting Moldova’s Democratic Transition Nicu Popescu, October 2009 (ECFR/17) Can the EU rebuild failing states? A review of Europe’s Civilian Capacities Daniel Korski and Richard Gowan, October 2009 (ECFR/18) Towards a Post-American Europe: A Power Audit of EU-US Relations Jeremy Shapiro and Nick Witney, October 2009 (ECFR/19) Dealing with Yanukovych’s Ukraine Andrew Wilson, March 2010 (ECFR/20) Beyond Wait-and-See: The Way Forward for EU Balkan Policy Heather Grabbe, Gerald Knaus and Daniel Korski, May 2010 (ECFR/21) A Global China Policy François Godement, June 2010 (ECFR/22) Towards an EU Human Rights Strategy for a Post-Western World Susi Dennison and Anthony Dworkin, September 2010 (ECFR/23)

Egypt’s Hybrid Revolution: a Bolder EU Approach Anthony Dworkin, Daniel Korski and Nick Witney, May 2011 (ECFR/32) A Chance to Reform: How the EU can support Democratic Evolution in Morocco Susi Dennison, Nicu Popescu and José Ignacio Torreblanca, May 2011 (ECFR/33) China’s Janus-faced Response to the Arab Revolutions Jonas Parello-Plesner and Raffaello Pantucci, June 2011 (ECFR/34) What does Turkey think? Edited by Dimitar Bechev, June 2011 (ECFR/35) What does Germany think about Europe? Edited by Ulrike Guérot and Jacqueline Hénard, June 2011 (ECFR/36) The Scramble for Europe François Godement and Jonas Parello-Plesner with Alice Richard, July 2011 (ECFR/37)

European Foreign Policy Scorecard 2012, February 2012 (ECFR/48) The long shadow of Ordoliberalism: Germany’s Approach to the Euro crisis Sebastian Dullien and Ulrike Guérot, February 2012 (ECFR/49) The end of the Putin consensus Ben Judah and Andrew Wilson, March 2012 (ECFR/50) Syria: Towards a Political Solution Julien Barnes-Dacey, March 2012 (ECFR/51) How the EU can support reform in Burma Jonas Parello-Plesner, March 2012 (ECFR/52) China at the crossroads François Godement, April 2012 (ECFR/53) Europe and Jordan: Reform before it’s too late Julien Barnes-Dacey, April 2012 (ECFR/54)

Palestinian Statehood at the UN: Why Europeans Should Vote “Yes” Daniel Levy and Nick Witney, September 2011 (ECFR/38)

China and Germany: Why the emerging special relationship matters for Europe Hans Kundnani and Jonas Parello-Plesner, May 2012 (ECFR/55)

The EU and Human Rights at the UN: 2010 Review Richard Gowan and Franziska Brantner, September 2010 (ECFR/24)

The EU and Human Rights at the UN: 2011 Review Richard Gowan and Franziska Brantner, September 2011 (ECFR/39)

After Merkozy: How France and Germany can make Europe work Ulrike Guérot and Thomas Klau, May 2012 (ECFR/56)

The Spectre of a Multipolar Europe Ivan Krastev & Mark Leonard with Dimitar Bechev, Jana Kobzova & Andrew Wilson, October 2010 (ECFR/25)

How to Stop the Demilitarisation of Europe Nick Witney, November 2011 (ECFR/40)

The EU and Azerbaijan: Beyond Oil Jana Kobzova, May 2012 (ECFR/57)

Europe and the Arab Revolutions: A New Vision for Democracy and Human Rights Susi Dennison and Anthony Dworkin, November 2011 (ECFR/41)

A Europe of Incentives: How to regain the trust of citizens and markets Mark Leonard and Jan Zielonka, June 2012 (ECFR/58)

Beyond Maastricht: a New Deal for the Eurozone Thomas Klau and François Godement, December 2010 (ECFR/26) The EU and Belarus after the Election Balázs Jarábik, Jana Kobzova and Andrew Wilson, January 2011 (ECFR/27) After the Revolution: Europe and the Transition in Tunisia Susi Dennison, Anthony Dworkin, Nicu Popescu and Nick Witney, March 2011 (ECFR/28) European Foreign Policy Scorecard 2010 March 2011 (ECFR/29) The New German Question: How Europe can get the Germany it needs Ulrike Guérot and Mark Leonard, April 2011 (ECFR/30) Turning Presence into Power: Lessons from the Eastern Neighbourhood Nicu Popescu and Andrew Wilson, May 2011 (ECFR/31)

Spain after the Elections: the “Germany of the South”? José Ignacio Torreblanca and Mark Leonard, November 2011 (ECFR/42) Four Scenarios for the Reinvention of Europe Mark Leonard, November 2011 (ECFR/43) Dealing with a Post-Bric Russia Ben Judah, Jana Kobzova and Nicu Popescu, November 2011 (ECFR/44)

The Case for Co-operation in Crisis Management Richard Gowan, June 2012 (ECFR/59) The Periphery of the Periphery: The Western Balkans and the Euro Crisis Dimitar Bechev, August 2012 (ECFR/60) Lebanon: Containing Spillover from Syria Julien Barnes-Dacey, September 2012 (ECFR/61)

Rescuing the euro: what is China’s price? François Godement, November 2011 (ECFR/45)

A Power Audit of EU-North Africa Relations Nick Witney and Anthony Dworkin, September 2012 (ECFR/62)

A “Reset” with Algeria: The Russia to the EU’s South Hakim Darbouche and Susi Dennison, December 2011 (ECFR/46)

Transnistria: A bottom-up Solution Nicu Popescu and Leonid Litra, September 2012 (ECFR/63)

Ukraine after the Tymoshenko verdict Andrew Wilson, December 2011 (ECFR/47)

Why the Euro Crisis threatens the European Single Market Sebastian Dullien, October 2012 (ECFR/64)

9

ABOUT ECFR The European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) is the first pan-European think-tank. Launched in October 2007, its objective is to conduct research and promote informed debate across Europe on the development of coherent, effective and values-based European foreign policy. ECFR has developed a strategy with three distinctive elements that define its activities: •A pan-European Council. ECFR has brought together a distinguished Council of over one hundred Members politicians, decision makers, thinkers and business people from the EU’s member states and candidate countries - which meets once a year as a full body. Through geographical and thematic task forces, members provide ECFR staff with advice and feedback on policy ideas and help with ECFR’s activities within their own countries. The Council is chaired by Martti Ahtisaari, Joschka Fischer and Mabel van Oranje. • A physical presence in the main EU member states. ECFR, uniquely among European think-tanks, has offices in Berlin, London, Madrid, Paris, Rome, Sofia and Warsaw. In the future ECFR plans to open an office in Brussels. Our offices are platforms for research, debate, advocacy and communications. • A distinctive research and policy development process. ECFR has brought together a team of distinguished researchers and practitioners from all over Europe to advance its objectives through innovative projects with a pan-European focus. ECFR’s activities include primary research, publication of policy reports, private meetings and public debates, ‘friends of ECFR’ gatherings in EU capitals and outreach to strategic media outlets. ECFR is backed by the Soros Foundations Network, the Spanish foundation FRIDE (La Fundación para las Relaciones Internacionales y el Diálogo Exterior), the Bulgarian Communitas Foundation, the Italian UniCredit group, the Stiftung Mercator and Steven Heinz. ECFR works in partnership with other organisations but does not make grants to individuals or institutions. www.ecfr.eu

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ISBN: 978-1-906538-65-1 Published by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), 35 Old Queen Street, London, SW1H 9JA, United Kingdom [email protected]

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The European Council on Foreign Relations does not take collective positions. This paper, like all publications of the European Council on Foreign Relations, represents only the views of its authors.